01999nas a2200361   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001200055653002400067653002700091653001100118653001100129653004100140653001000181653001200191653000900203653002500212653002000237653002200257653003600279653000900315653001800324100001300342700001500355700001600370700001500386700001200401245008600413300001100499490000600510520110700516022001401623       2011                            d  c2011 Oct10aAnimals10aBiomedical Research10aDisease Models, Animal10aFemale10aHumans10aInfectious Disease Incubation Period10aJapan10aleprosy10aMale10aMycobacterium leprae10aPan troglodytes10aPeripheral nerves10aPolymorphism, Single Nucleotide10aSkin10aUnited States1 aSuzuki K1 aTanigawa K1 aKawashima A1 aMiyamura T1 aIshii N00aChimpanzees used for medical research shed light on the pathoetiology of leprosy.  a1151-70 v63 a<p>Leprosy is a chronic infectious disorder caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which mainly affects skin and peripheral nerves. It is classified as either paucibacillary or multibacillary based upon clinical manifestations and slit-skin smear results. It is speculated that leprosy develops after a long latency period following M. leprae infection. However, the actual time of infection and the duration of latency have never been proven in human patients. To date, four cases of spontaneous leprosy have been reported in chimpanzees who were caught in West Africa in infancy and used for medical research in the USA and Japan. One of these chimpanzees was extensively studied in Japan, and single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis for the M. leprae genome was conducted. This analysis revealed that the chimpanzee was infected with M. leprae during infancy in West Africa and the pathognomonic signs of leprosy appeared after at least 30 years of incubation. Analysis of leprosy in chimpanzees can contribute not only to medical research but also to the understanding of the pathoetiology of leprosy.</p>  a1746-0921